Met Office averages for every station!

[Aaron]

Sorry if this seems like an unnecessary thread but I've just noticed that the Met have published 1981 - 2010 averages for every station in the country, free of charge to the public - that's a first, now I can see what the averages are like at the station closest to me, Church Fenton.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/climate/church-fenton#?tab=climateNetwork

[Isolated Frost]

December colder than February in Durham!

The warming trend continues though, and that is the general point with these averages.

[Rainy]

Thanks Aaron. Some long-loved stations there -- yes, I did write "loved"..

[Kent Snow]

Thanks for the link Aaron. Lots of info to digest on there!

[Relativistic]

This is really cool, but a shame that they don't give record maxima and minima for each station, would love to see that.

[March Blizzard]

Brilliant find, Aaron! Only looked at 6-7 stations so far and surprised to see December frequently with the lowest minima and days of air frost.

[Aaron]

Yeah I've noticed that too, at places like Shap the average lows go -0.3C, 0C, -0.3C in Dec, Jan and Feb respectively. Usually this is the type of thing you see in continental climates, especially places like Denver.

Also great to see the famous Dalwhinnie, coldest settlement in the UK, and Cairn Gorm summit, coldest place in the British Isles.

[Thundery wintry showers]

It's because the period 1981-2010 is bracketed by two exceptionally cold Decembers (1981, 2010) and unlike the other months of the year, December has not warmed significantly since the early 20th century whereas January and February have warmed significantly. The main reason for this is synoptic, with an unusually high frequency of cold blocked setups in recent Decembers, compared with a lack of them during January.

As a result, the Decembers of the 1981-2010 period were anomalously cold relative to longer-term averages. Most 30-year periods have their anomalies, e.g. 1971-2000 had anomalously cool Junes and 1961-1990 had anomalously warm Octobers.